DEATH row killer Jessie Hoffman has been executed with nitrogen gas in a 19-minute ordeal that left him “twitching and jerking”.
The 46-year-old declined to make a final statement in the execution chamber and didn’t have a final meal.
APLouisiana death row inmate Jessie Hoffman Jr[/caption]
Louisiana state courtsThe apparatus used for nitrogen gas executions has been revealed[/caption]
Louisiana state courtsHoffman would have been wearing a gas mask[/caption]
Molly Elliott is pictured on her wedding day, who was just 28 years old when Hoffman killed her
Hoffman was pronounced dead at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, with authorities revealing that nitrogen gas had flowed for 19 minutes – dubbing it a “flawless execution”.
Witnesses to the horror execution said Hoffman appeared to involuntarily shake or had “some convulsive activity”.
Hoffman was convicted of the 1996 rape and murder of Mary Molly Elliott, a 28-year-old advertising executive who was brutally killed in New Orleans.
At the time of the crime, Hoffman was 18 years old and had since spent the majority of his adulthood at the penitentiary in southeast Louisiana – where he was executed.
Under the Louisiana protocol, officials said Hoffman would be strapped to a gurney before having a full-face respirator mask put over his face.
Pure nitrogen gas was then pumped into the mask, forcing Hoffman to inhale it and consequently depriving him of oxygen.
The protocol also called for the gas to be administered for at least 15 minutes – or five minutes after the inmates heart rate reaches a flat line indication.
Two witnesses to the execution said Hoffman was covered with a gray blanket from the neck down and was accompanied in the chamber by his spiritual advisor.
Prior to the execution and after the curtains closed to the viewing room, witnesses said they could hear Buddhist chanting.
The gas began to flow at 6:21pm, which is when Hoffman began twitching, according to witnesses.
His hands also clenched and he had a “slight head movement.”
One witness, Gina Swanson, said she closely watched the blanket over Hoffman’s chest area and could see it rise and fall, suggesting he was breathing.
She also revealed that his last visible breath appeared to be at 6:37pm.
Shortly after, the curtains between the chamber and witness viewing room closed and, when they reopened, Hoffman was pronounced dead.
Chief of operations at the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections and a witness to the execution Seth Smith also spoke of Hoffman’s chilling final movements.
He said he saw the convulsions to be an “involuntary response to dying” and that Hoffman appeared to be unconscious at the time.
The execution marks the fifth time nitrogen gas was used in the US after four executions by the same method all in Alabama.
Following desperate court battles earlier this month, attorney’s for Hoffman turned to the Supreme Court in last-minute hopes of stopping the execution.
Just last year, the court refused to intervene in the nations first nitrogen hypoxia execution that took place in Alabama.
Hoffman’s lawyers had unsuccessfully argued that the nitrogen gas procedure – which deprives a person of oxygen – violates the Eighth Amendments prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
They also argued the method would infringe on Hoffman’s Buddhist breathing and meditation, the freedom to practice religion, in the moments leading up to his death.
Louisiana officials consistently maintained that method is painless.
Hours earlier at a hearing on Tuesday, a 19th Judicial District Court Judge Richard Chip Moore also declined to stop the execution.
He agreed with the state’s lawyers who had argued the man’s religion-based arguments fell under the jurisdiction of a federal judge who had already ruled on them, local news reports.
Louisiana state courtsThe apparatus used for nitrogen gas executions[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
